I don't believe most of her questions are real. I think she makes up a lot of them. No way are real people writing with all those extremely oddball issues.

I prefer Amy Dickinson "Ask Amy".

When she first began -- nearly 20 years ago, mind you -- she was a fresh alternative to the Dear Abby type advice columns. A few things that distinguished her included:

-- A willingness to tackle subjects that other advice columnists would not, especially things like homosexuality, getting along with exes, roommate relationships, etc. These topics were more on the forefront of her audience at the time -- other 20 somethings. At times, the dilemmas she opined on bordered a trollish.

-- A bias to being selfish. Most of her responses really seem to be oriented more around acting rationally and in self-interest moreso than "doing the right thing" unless doing the right thing also happened to be politically correct. So, there was more "run, run as fast you can" type advice.

-- A flippant writing style (see "Wow, just wow")

-- The first columnist, so far as I know, to host live chats on the Internet (a model since copied by Emily Yoffe and others). So, there was more feedback and interaction between readers. It was, for lack of a better explanation, innovative.
the first crowd-sourced advice column. So, very
-- The witty cartoons by her ex-husband.

Over time she's become more predictable in her advice, which remains very self-centered at its heart. Like any columnist, sometimes it's spot on, sometimes not. The writing style has become a bit tiresome. And the column fodder itself tends to lean too heavily on reader/chat content. I think she only writes like two columns a week -- so the other three days it's recycled from chat sessions.

Now, she's in her 40s with a couple of kids and an ex-husband. Nothing wrong with that. But she can't really speak to her original audience with the same authority she once did. So, I get why some people don't care for her.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read her for years, I think she's a quack.

A quack would imply she is claiming medical/mental health training, like Dr Laura (a quack). Hax is a journalist.

Journalist? Like she keeps a journal?

I thought she was a divorced columnist who wrote "advice columns" on, you guessed it, relationships, for the Post's style section.

Journalist, indeed.

Do you know what a journalist is?

I like her a lot. I don't necessarily agree with everything she says, but I think for the most part she gives pretty sensible advice.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Her writing style gives me a headache.

+1
She is far too wordy, among other things.

It's gotten much better over the years.

I remember when she first started. It was so horrible.

I love her. Compassionate but realistic.

Anonymous wrote:I like her a lot. I think she's down to earth and realistic, and gets to the heart of life's recurring dilemmas.

Agree.

Anonymous wrote:Her writing style gives me a headache.

+1. "Wow. Just wow." And untold numbers of DCUMers have picked up this stupid phrase and use it endlessly.

She's annoying.

But then plenty of DCUM posters are annoying, too.

I like her a lot. I think she's down to earth and realistic, and gets to the heart of life's recurring dilemmas.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read her for years, I think she's a quack.

A quack would imply she is claiming medical/mental health training, like Dr Laura (a quack). Hax is a journalist.

Journalist? Like she keeps a journal?

I thought she was a divorced columnist who wrote "advice columns" on, you guessed it, relationships, for the Post's style section.

Journalist, indeed.

Do y'all read the comments that people write on washingtonpost.com after Carolyn's column posts?

People really read advice columns thinking they'll get good advice? Huh. I like her columns (and chats) because she's funny and because I can't help but rubberneck at some of the nitwits who ask her questions.

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read her for years, I think she's a quack.

A quack would imply she is claiming medical/mental health training, like Dr Laura (a quack). Hax is a journalist.